We describe a new species of barbet in the genus Capito from an outlying ridge of the eastern Andes of Peru. We performed phylogenetic and population genetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences of the new species and C.wallacei and determined that they are reciprocally monophyletic sister species. The new species is diagnosable by plumage and morphology from C.wallacei and is apparently endemic to a small region of montane cloud forest in the southern portion of the Cerros del Sira.